Our family journey around the world and our pursuit of a simple life

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Life in Yaoundé

I have been living in Cameroon Yaoundé since August 2015 – about 8 months now.

Discovered a passion for clouds lately 🙂

I wrote several posts about our life and experiences here but decided not to publish them…

WHY, well, my goal is to portray the GOOD about life in Central Africa; A lot is already said about, poverty, corruption, lack of infrastructures, Medical services, the WEIGHT of the African family etc… In my opinion, not enough is written about the positive side…

Until now, the only people I directly interacted with were my family in law and my employees; I have not been able yet to really meet enough new people and make friends; so, I feel like my opinion might be bias and would not fully reflect how it is to live here as all I do at moment is work/home.

View of my plantation

I am having a hard time adjusting to life here, and this has nothing to do with the country itself, I “like” the city of Yaoundé; I am talking about the people, the mentality. You might think but you are originally from Central Africa; yes but I left as a child and lived over 30 years abroad, the transition back to my roots is really hard. I have lived in different places and even continents like the Middle East where the culture is completely different; but living here is a whole new dimension that takes time and a LOT OF PATIENCE to adapt to.

I would like to say I like living here; it is not true yet, but I am working at it. I found a Zumba Class I love already; so that’s a + (plus); I met a group of ladies I had the pleasure to spend some time with and hope this will grow into some friendship… I also joined a gym I quite enjoy; so slowly, life is taking place…. and I am sure it will just get easier and better once I start having a social life.

I love watching a “fire”, so beautiful…

The things I don’t miss about the western world are: receiving all kinds of letters through the mail box, life at 100 miles/h…

What I miss here in Cameroon are the infinite options you have when you leave your home… Malls, parks, cinemas, libraries, real supermarket (Tesco/Carrefour), ordering Domino’s Pizza :), etc…

You have to be very creative to have fun in Yaoundé, as I am not at all into night life; my options are very limited.

I am discovering the city little by little. I am sure there is a lot more I still don’t know about the place.

Food: organic fruits and vegetables are available at all seasons and the variety is just amazing.

What else, the weather! I guess, 20+ degrees all year around can’t be bad :).